First Impressions
by theschizokid
Summary: He would always be her flaky, girly baby-faced softie.  Oneshot, Minato X Kushina, and it's basically Kushina's point of view of the turn of events in her life. Rated for some minor bad words. R&R please! Minimal fluff


I am really here. Really enrolled in Konoha's Academy. Really taken away from mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and Aniki and gamma-chan. Plus I have been put in a class of Konoha brats that pick on me because of my red hair and because my face is just a _little_ bit on the chubby side. Mito-sama tells me I'm not fat.

And then there's that really flaky, girly-looking guy in my class who wants everyone to acknowledge him and become Hokage. In his _dreams_. If he'd ever become Hokage, I'd _marry_ him. Which is never. Mito-sama said it isn't nice to call someone weak, but being alone in a class in a totally new village away from everyone really sucks.

~X~

It happens again today. The little flaky bastard bests me _again_. This time it is teamwork and just because the other boys start picking on me and I start to bash their heads in, Sensei tells me to go stand in a corner and '_think about my actions_'. Sensei's tried that thousands of time – I can probably recognize every crack in the wall now – he should give up on me giving in to him. I'll show Sensei one day, _and_ that loser girly-boy.

~X~

His name is Namikaze Minato. Minato saves me from the Kumo ninja and throughout the whole thing I am like _oh my god oh my god he's going to die_. Only he doesn't die. And when he's taken me back from those stupid Kumo shinobi and he's perched himself on a tree just because he likes to show off, he says he likes my red hair. But _I_ hate my hair. But then again he hasn't died yet. So I guess that means he isn't _that_ flaky. Maybe.

~X~

Minato is a loser. A really bad loser. Today I beat him when we are sparring, and when this continues on for like the hundredth time, I ask him if he is hiding some kind of injury because apparently he's _such_ a gentleman – about _everyone_ says so. But he says _no_, he isn't injured. Namikaze Minato says that he'd been thinking about a kunoichi a lot, a kunoichi who's really fierce and manly, and I whack him over the head again because he is talking shit about Yoshino-chan.

Mito-sama is about to scold me again, but when I explain the whole situation to her she just pauses for a while, then she pats my head and laughs. Like really loudly. Like _she's-in-the-Hokage-Tower-and-I-can-hear-her-from-the-Dango-shop_ loud. She's told Hiruzen-sama, who just smiles weakly at me. I really don't understand these Konoha villagers.

~X~

Mito-sama has died. I've cried and cried and cried for the past few days, mourning her passing and the fact that now there's something living inside me. I can't believe it. Mito-sama can't be dead. She _can't be dead_. The Kyuubi can't be sealed inside me already. Not _now_. I still remember what Mito-sama told me: _We came here to be the vessels of the Nine-Tails… But before that, we must find love and fill the vessel with it_… But I _haven't_ filled myself with love yet. I've lost mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and Aniki and Gamma-chan already. I _don't_ have their love with me anymore. I'm stuck here with the Kyuubi now, and I hate this.

~X~

Minato's as flaky as ever. He's been hanging around me like a fly, and even when I yell at him to leave me alone he still sticks around, smiling like the idiot he is. He says he's sad that Mito-sama has passed away and now I don't have a confidante. I tell him I'm freaking _alone_, and then I shout at him to go away and let me think. But he says I'm not alone, and when I'm about to punch him for mocking me he screams, like the sissy he is, that I have him.

I want to hit him, to wallop his ass so bad he won't be able to walk for another month, to knock him out so that he'll need dentures, but in the end all that I do is collapse and cry.

I cry and I cry and I cry again. I thought I'd used up all my tears, but then the next moment fresh ones are flowing down again. I really hate it when I cry; my nose goes all runny and my eyes go all puffy and my voice sounds like I have a cold and I'm on helium. Then Minato sits down next to me, still smiling his freaking ass off, and tells me that it's okay to cry, but he hates it when I cry, so would I please stop crying and start smiling.

Again, I feel like punching his face so bad, wiping that stupid grin off his face. _How can he be so happy when Mito-sama's dead?_ But as I swing my arms he wraps his own hands around my shoulders, which I suppose is some kind of reassuring hug or something.

I'm about to yank his arms off me and twist them, but then he laughs and tells me that I'm as feisty as ever, even when I'm bawling my eyes out. I don't answer, and then he chuckles softly before resettling his arm on my shoulder, and then he tells me to look at the clouds. _Look at those two_, he says, pointing, _they look like Mito-sama and Hashirama-sama, don't they?_ I look and squint at the vast blue sky, and then I see Mito-sama's smiling face cast among the pure white of the clouds.

_I guess,_ I mutter under my breath, wiping the leftover tears from my eyes. He still looks like a girl to me.

~X~

War – that's the word that is on Minato's lips as he bursts into my room, making me scream and almost knock him unconscious. Doesn't he know how to knock?

Regardless, he parades around my room panic-stricken, frantic and worried but he finally calms down after I threaten to throw my bottle of perfume at him. Minato stares at me for a while, but then he goes to my side and bends down, both his knees on the ground. His blue eyes are beautiful. If we ever have children I hope at least one of them inherits his wonderful bright blue eyes. _My_ eyes suck; they're dull. Still, I guess I'm lucky enough to even have eyes at all.

Minato says my name more seriously, and then he moves my head so that I can look at him and he can look at me. He says my name again, and now that I see it, there's concern in his pupils; it makes him seem vulnerable and I hate that. He tells me he's afraid he'll lose me in this war, and he's about to say something else, but I smack him on his blond head before he can say any more.

_Don't be an idiot; I'm not that weak of a kunoichi to get killed so easily. Besides, I have the Kyuubi's power inside me as well_, I chide him, even though deep down inside me I feel it too. I _can't_ lose Minato. I _can't_.

Minato treats me to one of his rare, goofy grins, and this makes me smile. He leans in to kiss my forehead, and sighs while he places his blond spiky head on my lap. _I'll protect you no matter what_, he assures me, but with a flick of a finger he flinches.

_I don't need protection_, I tell him, _I can take care of myself. You just worry about Rin and Kakashi and Obito. _Minato's wide grin melts off his face, and it's replaced by a more serene smile. He nods and chuckles to himself. He really loves kids, and after this new war when he and I are married, we'll probably have the biggest family around.

~X~

He's really a big softie after all.

The war ended not too long ago, and the sound of the elated cheers from when Hiruzen-sama declared the war had been brought to a close still resounds in my mind. Minato says he's been chosen to become the Fourth Hokage, and isn't that ironic? He really has become Hokage, and I really have married him.

Well Hokage or not, he's still a sissy boy with a weak heart when it comes to others. I tell him about _it_, and he needs five whole minutes to get my drift. Then he collapses on the couch, his pretty blue eyes wide.

_Really?_ he asks me, incredulous. I plonk myself down next to him, and Minato almost lets out a yelp. My red hair flies as my body falls onto the sofa, and through his shock he manages to smile somehow. Grinning like the beautiful person I am, I grab his big, capable hand and place it on my abdomen, still rather flat and firm.

_Definitely_, I proclaim to him quite proudly, my head held high. _You're going to be a daddy, Minato_.

His eyes go a little moist as the news finally sinks in, and I snicker at him for being such an emotional shinobi, but I don't tell him my thoughts. Then my husband wipes away some snot that's threatening to drip out of his nose and totally ruin the moment, and he hugs me, a few drops of his tears pooling at the bottom of his lids. His smile is evident through his words, _Thank you_, he says, _I love you_.

~X~

Oh, my God. Oh my god oh my god oh my god.

The pain is tearing me from the inside out, burning me away and rubbing salt in the wound. Yell after shout after scream escape my lips, and even though I really hate it when he worries about me, I hardly care anymore. At the back of my mind, I know; I know that this is all going to be more than worth it, that after this whole thing Minato and I will have Naruto and everything will be okay.

Except everything's not okay.

The next thing I know when the pain subsides is that there's more pain, so much more pain…

Then that masked dude says something, but I can't register… there's just so much…

After that I find myself next to Naruto. He's such a beautiful child, so good, he's not crying…

So much happens, so much I can't remember…

Minato comes again, then we restrain the Kyuubi together. But it is as strong as ever, and I can feel my life waning… _Naruto… Minato…_

We argue, and for the first time Minato wins. I don't like the sound of the deal, but I suppose it's a win-win situation. He gets his time with Naruto, as do I. But still…

When the Kyuubi tries to kill my child, Minato and I protect him _together_. Minato tells me to say my last words to our son, but there's so much I want to say, too many things I want to do… So I tell Naruto what I wanted to tell him as he grew up; not to be a picky eater when he would be in his terrible twos, to take a bath regularly when he would be such a boy, to sleep early when he would try to be a rebel… I give him advice on girls more than a decade early, and about the three vices of a shinobi before he's even opened his newborn-baby eyes. And then Minato tells him about Jiraiya-sama, a wonderful shinobi he hasn't even met yet.

_Too soon, too soon…_

I try telling Minato how much I love him, but no sound comes out from my throat. My vision blurs and finally all I can see is darkness, my senses spiraling down an abyss.

As I feel the warmth of Minato behind me fade, as I feel my own breathing slow, I feel my lips curl upwards and rest my heart against the things I know for sure:

_That Naruto was born to parents who loved him the most,_

_That the flaky, sissy-faced Namikaze Minato loved his village and his wife and his child more than anything,_

_That I was a vessel of the Kyuubi, and that I was filled with love._


End file.
